Fear and Loathing
by YenRug
Summary: Just how did Anya come to dislike bunnies so much?


Fear and Loathing  
  
Gloria was wearing her pink gingham dress. Well, actually, one of them. She knew Brett wasn't keen on it, but she'd been able to pick up a whole bolt of the cloth cheap and, with how things were, money was tight. Had been for some while now, they were already calling it "The Great Depression". Those darned fools in the big cities at least had the decency to jump from their high-faluting offices, when they realised what a mess they'd made of things. Gloria chastised herself for thinking such a horrid thought. Plenty of those poor souls had families who'd depended on them.  
That was why a large part of the décor of the house featured pink gingham and a large part of her wardrobe too. Couldn't afford to waste what you could get, nowadays. Anyway, Brett would be back home tonight, luck withstanding. She knew the look that would pass across his face, when he saw the furnishings draped in that cloth, but she also knew how his face would light up when he saw her, even whilst wearing that much hated material. She just hoped that he'd not managed to pick up a jug from those goddarned boot-leggers again. Gloria loved Brett with all of her heart, but she had trouble remembering that when he got the booze in him.  
  
It was time to feed the rabbits. Gloria left the house through the kitchen door, stopping by the feed box to pull out some alfalfa, before carrying on to the pen. The fence wasn't that high above the ground, but she knew personally, how deep it was buried to stop the little bundles of fur from escaping. That had been an expensive lesson in lost animals, fencing, time, and effort. Even so, Gloria had taken to naming every single one of the rabbits, though some folks thought it cruel to name an animal that would end up on your plate one day. Not Gloria, she cared for every single one, but she didn't hold any favourites.  
Whilst she doled out their food, she swept a practiced eye over which ones could be gracing the table tonight. Brett would be back after a week on the road, and she didn't want to disappoint him.  
"Hi there, boy, do these rabbits look ready for the pot." Looking back, afterwards, Gloria would realise that the biggest surprise was that she hadn't been surprised by the sudden appearance of the woman alongside her.  
"Yeah, at least a few of them are. I'm thinking Alex, over there, is looking good for stewing for tonight."  
"He sure does. Want me to grab him for you? I used to keep rabbits myself, might be able to give you some tips later on."  
"Be my guest. Where was that, if you don't mind me asking? I take it you're not from around these parts."  
"Oh, a country called Norway now." The woman quickly leaned over the pen and, with a practiced and predatory strike, plucked Alex from amongst the rest of the rabbits. "It was when I was much, much younger though. I really should go back some time. I find myself pining for the fjords, occasionally. I suppose I should really check on Olaf, too."  
"You must have been but a child when you came over. I can't hear any accent in your voice."  
"A child? I suppose I was, in a way. By the way, my name is Anyanka."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Alex went in the stewing pot, whilst the two women spent the rest of the day talking. Anyanka used her ability to get her potential "customers" to open up to great effect. Even though women were happy to tell their friends their secrets, it took the skills of a Vengeance Demon to bring out how someone felt about the men that had wronged them. Even so, Anyanka was becoming exasperated. She had never known anyone to be so forgiving, and Gloria could have given Solomon a run for his money.  
"How in the hells can she let him get away with so much?" thought Anyanka. "I know that he plays around whilst he's away on his sales trips, she most certainly suspects that. And when he does return home, he's invariably drunk! Why does she say nothing?"  
Never having given up on a case, Anyanka persevered; cajoling, persuading and even bending the rules, by directly revealing information that only she and Brett could have known.  
Gloria took the glowing visions and the revelations in her stride. It amazed Anyanka that it was possible to love someone so unquestioningly. It even began to cross her mind that maybe her superiors were trying to test her. She hadn't been given any warnings that the case might involve a divinely decreed love, nor could she detect any attempts at intervention by a higher being. Just what was going on here?  
Realising that making a direct appeal against the love of her husband was doomed to fail, Anyanka started working on Gloria's desires. Surely, there must be something in her life that she wasn't happy with. If she could just find that dissatisfaction, then she might be able to start turning it to her advantage. Once you got it flowing, spite was normally self-generating.  
  
As evening drew in there seemed to be hope, Gloria was finally starting to complain about little things that she wasn't happy with.  
Anyanka thought it was time to push her luck. "So, do you ever wish for anything? Evisceration? Decapitation? Hung upside down and being dipped in boiling oil?"  
"Oh no, my mother always told me never to make wishes." Gloria was oblivious to exactly what Anyanka had suggested. "She told me that nothing good could ever come of them."  
"Well, I can pretty much guarantee that no good will come of the one I can get you to make. But surely, there has to be something you wanted to change in your life or around you?"  
"Hmm, I suppose there is, if I'm truly honest. I've just never thought it safe to say it out loud."  
Here it came at last. Anyanka had never known a case to take this long, to get anywhere. She leaned forward, urging on the reluctant Gloria.  
"What I really want, with how things are at the moment, what I really wish for..."  
Anyanka would never know how close she came to being disappointed, at hearing Gloria ask for 'world peace and enough food and money for everyone'. Instead, Brett chose that moment to come stumbling through the door into the kitchen. If his stance and unsteadiness hadn't been a good enough indicator, obvious though they were, the smell made it more than plain to anyone that Brett had met up with boot-leggers again.  
With nary a pause, Gloria gave a slightly disdainful look and declared, "Brett, you're as stewed as this rabbit!"  
A look of unadulterated glee passed across Anyanka's face. "OK, that's close enough for me, not quite what I was looking for, but it's a start!" With a wave of her hands, Brett suddenly began to shrink and twist. A plaintive cry left his throat, and swiftly died. It took just two short breaths for Gloria to be staring at the space where her husband had once been standing, to be now faced with a rabbit sat on its haunches in the same spot.  
She would have let out a scream, but Anyanka dashed out of her chair and, with the same precision she'd displayed earlier, plucked Brett from the floor and dashed out the open door.  
After a moment's pause, Gloria flew from her chair, causing it to tumble to the floor, and followed Anyanka out into the darkness. It took a moment to spot the fleeing figure, in the gloom, but then she spotted movement near the rabbit pen. She ran as fast as she could, but when she caught up with Anyanka, the woman's hands were empty.  
"Where is my husband? What have you done with Brett? Tell me!"  
"There." Anyanka waved a hand towards the pen, a soft glow appearing to illuminate its contents.  
Gloria surveyed the sight before her. Gone were all the different coloured rabbits; they now all looked the same as the one that her husband had become. Despair entered her eyes. "Robert, Andrew, Tracy, Cynthia, where are you? Where have you gone? Please, let me see you. Please, let me know which amongst you is my beloved Brett!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Brett had spent a nice couple of days chewing down on his food, before that things got a bit hazy and very confused, but he didn't let that bother him. About the only thing he could do with, to make his life complete, were some does. He could smell that there had been some, and the other rabbits were sure there used to be some, but now there was no trace. Until they showed up again, he would be happy with the food. In fact, there was some more coming now. He quite liked this human woman; she would come out several times each day and give them all fresh food, though he wasn't too sure about the other one that would show up sometimes.  
There she was again, something strange happened to the air and then she would be simply "there". That wasn't right, even to a rabbit's brain. Brett really didn't like this other woman, when she was around. She made his fur stand on end, and his back legs wanted to beat out a rhythm on the ground. Brett made sure he didn't though, because he felt certain it would be a bad thing if he did. She was waving her limbs around again, firstly towards all of the rabbits, and then making a strange motion towards the other woman. Somehow, he instinctively knew it was a bad thing. He was realising that she was bad in a very special way.  
  
"Come on, Gloria, what's the problem? Just pick one up, wring its neck, and then put it in the pot. You do it all the time. Why not now?"  
"Because one of them is my husband!"  
"No, these are rabbits. Your husband was a human. You are not married to a rabbit. I just don't understand you. You happily gave these rabbits names and then ate them. Now you're getting squeamish?"  
With that, Gloria threw down the armful of alfalfa and fled back to the house in tears.  
Brett couldn't understand what they'd said, but he knew the human he liked had been upset. He watched as the one he was beginning to hate lifted her limbs up and then passed them down her body. The wrongness happened again, and then she was "not there".  
Brett started to turn towards the fresh food and came face-to-face with another rabbit. It looked just like all the other rabbits in there, including himself, but there was something about the eyes. They were dark, which is quite an achievement when your eyes are black already. They stared intently at each other, for a while, Brett becoming more uncomfortable by the second.  
"You. Are. Not. Of. My. Family. Why. Are. You. Here?"  
"I'm heading for that fresh food over there, that's why I'm here. Who are you?"  
"I. Am. Your. Lord."  
"We have a Lord? That's news to me. Maybe you could sort out some does for us?"  
"It. Appears. That. I. Do. Have. Some. Sorting. To. Do."  
  
* * * * *  
  
The many-horned demon pored over the ledger in front of him. It was very important as it kept track of all the transactions that the Vengeance Demons carried out. Its accuracy was vital when he showed it to his superiors. A slight imbalance was disturbing him, though. There was one recent case which had still not been truly completed, that was a surprise considering the one responsible for it. He hoped an investigation was not required.  
Whilst his attention was taken, a shape started to form in the air behind him. Initially looking no more than a black cloud, it slowly elongated into a simple face with two glowing almond shapes for eyes. Above the face, there were two long ear shapes, but they were trying to turn into horns before being brought under control again, about the only sign of the anger that the owner felt.  
"Who dares to disturb the work of D'Hoffryn, Lord of Arashmahar? He that turns the air to blood and rains..." intoned the demon, turning as he sensed the presence behind him. "Oh, it's you, Frith. I suspected that I might be hearing from you. I was just studying the matter I believe you're here about. I am surprised by the personal appearance, though."  
"I. Come. Seeking. Restoration."  
"I thought as much. I'll just summon Anyanka, she'll pay of course, such a shame though. She's one of my favourites, normally so inventive and dedicated, I have no idea what went wrong here."  
"NO! You. Do. Not. Need. Her. Soul. To. Undo. What. Has. Been. Done. You. Use. That. As. Control. Over. Them. Punishment. Shall. Be. Mine. Alone. She. Deprived. Them. Of. Does. She. Created. Imbalance."  
"Well, this ought to be interesting - a Vengeance Demon suffering vengeance. Can I watch?"  
"Of. Course. Look." A globe of light quickly grew between the two, growing until it was almost 3 feet across, then it shimmered to reveal two women sat at a table in a diner.  
Anyanka was looking her normal composed self, although she was in reality hiding her frustration at lack of progress with Gloria. In the meantime, she had her duties to get on with. Things were going well with Veronica, sat across the table from her. She was full of anger at her boyfriend who had, it turned out, been two-timing her with someone on the other side of town. Talk of vengeance had been very easy to draw out.  
"So, if you could wish for one thing to happen to Charlie, right now...?"  
"What wouldn't I do to Charlie right now, more like. I wish he..." Veronica stopped just at the crucial moment and looked down, as she felt something nudging her foot. A stunned Anyanka watched as she leant below the table top, and came back up with a rabbit in her hands. "Hey you, how did you get in here? We'd best get you outside, before someone takes a brush to you and sweeps you out instead." She turned her attention from the rabbit to Anyanka. "Oh, thanks for the talk. You really helped me get some things off my chest. Might catch you again!"  
Anyanka could only sit there, looking dumbfounded. Where in the hells had a rabbit come from? Now she thought about it, it had looked quite a lot like the ones she'd left at Gloria's. She waved her arms and vanished, only to reappear next to the pen outside Gloria's house. No, they were all there, including Brett. Anyanka knew it hadn't been possible. How could Gloria have found her halfway across the country and gotten there so quickly? She waved her arms again, and Brett was instantly happier.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Hallie, you wouldn't believe the day I've had! Not a single case has been successful! Something happens every time I've been getting close. And it's always rabbits! My last one today, she was just about to start her wish when she burst out laughing. At me! I turned around and there was this child, it had been waggling its fingers above my head. They call it 'bunny ears', apparently." Anyanka angrily forked food into her mouth. This was meant to be a nice dinner with Halfrek, discussing their recent achievements.  
"Anya, dearie, it's just that awful Gloria case. It's gotten you so wound up that you're just seeing coincidences in these interruptions. We know that they can happen, and there's nothing we can do about it."  
"I don't know, Hallie. This is just way too much like interference. I'll just have to be on my guard tomorrow, see if I can detect anything."  
"Anya, how long have you been putting whole peppercorns on your food?"  
"What are you talking about, Hallie? I don't use condiments." Anyanka looked closely at her plate. They weren't peppercorns, they were rabbit droppings! She looked at the food on her fork, sure enough, there were droppings mixed in with it. With a rush of bile, Anyanka started retching, and then vomited on the floor.  
  
The globe shrank until it was a pin-prick of light, then it hung in the air for a few moments then winked out. D'Hoffryn stood there for a moment in the relative darkness since the globe's disappearance.  
"I'm reluctant to restore this 'Brett', based just on that little presentation. Are you sure I can't take her soul?"  
"Do. Not. Be. So. Impatient. She. Has. Got. Ten. More. Years. Of. This. Please. Restore. The. Balance. Now." 


End file.
